NME‘s 20 Greatest Tracks Of The Past 60 Years

British music mag mainstay NME is celebrating its 60th birthday, so naturally, they’re ranking stuff. On tap today is their 20 Greatest Tracks Of The Past 60 Years, and while I won’t spoil it for you, I will say this — they probably have Dizzee Rascal’s “Fix Up, Look Sharp” ranked higher than anyone else might have ranked it. Like, it’s ranked higher than “A Day In The Life.” Hit the list below.

“Hey, Mr. Dylan, we appreciate the fact that you were able to convey the essence of the 1960s in a six-minute folk-rock opus, that it was revolutional at the time, actually still is ’til this day and few songs, if any, have matched the impact it’s had on popular culture, but here’s a Dizzee Rascal song to take cues from.”

I’m willing to see that this is “The NME’s 20 Greatest Tracks” and not “THE Greatest Tracks”. So it means as much as a “Kula Shaker is the Best Band Evar” cover in a landfill. Still, one of those Stone Roses songs needs to be “I Wanna Be Adored”. One of the most perfect songs ever.

Honestly, I’m kind of numb to the concept of lists like this, but I will say I surprised that She Bangs the Drums ranks so far ahead of I Am the Resurrection, which I think is easily the best Roses song. SBTD is probably only fourth or fifth favorite track from the debut (though it’s my favorite album of all time).

Wasn’t it NME who ranked the first Arctic Monkeys album the third best British album ever, the week it was released? And do the Stone Roses even think they wrote two of the twenty best songs of the last 60 years? It’s JUST possible these guys lack perspective, although to be fair, this is a list of 20 excellent songs. All you need to do is remove the ‘greatest’ tag.

NME has always been a hangout for pretentious adolescents whose posturing is intended to make them seem cool. However, they’ve really surpassed themselves with this laughable list, which contains few tracks worthy of inclusion. The pro-Brit bias is embarassing even for me, born in London. I don’t think Joy Division, Pulp, New Order, Smiths, Specials, Oasis or Cure should even feature.

Putting Beatles behind their 3rd rate copyists Oasis is really saying the compilers haven’t got a clue about music (not that I’d have selected Day in the Life, any way).

I’m quite familiar with all the tracks listed apart from the Dizzee Rascal, which I’ve just heard for the 1st time. I wasn’t at all impressed, but I don’t listen to that particular sub-genre and wouldn’t claim to know if it’s good of its type.

The failure to include Hendrix’s All Along the Watchtower is the most obvious omission for me as it’s better than all the tracks included. I’m a big fan of Massive Attack, so I’d have selected Group Four. And so on.

It’s also just the *wrong* Brits. Two Stone Roses tracks and nothing by Kate Bush, Pulp but no Kinks, and so on. Probably no serious way to complete the basic ’20 from 60′ task but I Feel Love, What’s Going On, and Dancing Queen would definitely make my personal, hopeless list of this sort.

Checking the 00s list – Fix Up, Look Sharp was #45.
So 1 decade produced 44 better songs, however 6 decades produced only 8 better songs.
I’m no mathematician, but maybe for your next birthday you should have a cake instead of punishing us with these lists. Thanks.

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